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Friday, May 13, 2011

Foyt Wine Pairing Dinner - Entree

The Meritage had Black Cherries with a wood smoke and light tannins. This wine is friendly and I'd recommend it to anyone who is stepping into the red world but is not looking to have their mouths sucked dry from a tannic Zinfandel.

We went with making one of America's favorite, the Hamburger, and made it our way.

We began by slow cooking Caramelized Onions.

We made our own BBQ sauce, with home-made ketchup as a base.

The Burgers were made out of ground bison that was bought at the farmers market. Bison is to be cooked on medium - high heat and were served "Medium" or else they would be a nice hockey puck if cooked all the way through.

MethodFor the Caramelized Onions
1. In a cold oiled saute pan, add onions to sweat and wilt. Continuously stir onions to avoid burning. Sugars will begin to caramelize and create fond on the bottom of the pan. Add a quarter of the water to deglaze the pan and allow the water to reduce. Continue to cook and deglaze until onions are to a nice golden brown.

For the BBQ Sauce
2. In a sauce-pan combine all ingredients and reduce over medium-low heat stirring occasionally until thick.

For the Burger Patties

3. In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients. Separate the ground beef into four equal portions and roll into a ball. Flatten balls, ensuring that the edges are smooth and thickness is consistent throughout piece of meat for even cooking.
4. In a large saute pan, heat till smoking, and add hamburger patties cooking till blood creates droplets on surface. Flip and cook till medium.

For the Mushrooms

5. While burger patties are cooking, in a separate saute pan, heat till smoking and add mushrooms. Do not shake pan to allow proper browning of mushrooms. Saute mushrooms and finish by adding chopped garlic and seasoning.

Hamburger Setup
6. Toast buns by placing the cut side part in a saute pan till golden brown.
7. Take BBQ sauce and smear on both sides.
8. Begin building burger by adding clean arugula to the bottom bun.
9. Place cooked hamburger patty over Arugula.
10. Top with Bleu Cheese, Caramelized onions, and warm mushrooms and remaining half of the bun.
11. Eat with a bottle of Meritage Foyt wine.

The burger was juicy and succulent to replace all of the light tannins from the wine. The mushrooms added a savory characteristic to the gamey bison meat. The caramelized onions brought out sweetness. The bleu cheese cut the wine flavor and allowed the black cherry from the Foyt - Meritage to come out and was delicious with the tomatoes found in the BBQ sauce. The thyme showed up as the wine would wash away the remaining pieces I couldn't chew. This was the best pairing of the day and the most delicious.

Overly stuffed afterwards, I went straight to sleep.

Thank you Foyt wine for this opportunity to do something I love to do - Food and wine pairing.